The joys of Chuseok

I say the word “joys” very lukewarm-ly. Not to say that I didn’t have an awesome time during my celebrations of Chuseok, if you call celebrating about half of it on busses and other transportation vehicles an awesome time.

Perhaps I should first talk about Chuseok. I actually got through this entire blog and realized I needed to put a little paragraph about it since I’m sure not everyone knows what it is. It’s basically Korean Thanksgiving. People from all around Korea travel to their hometowns (traffic is terribly during this time) and make a ton of food, honor their dead and celebrate their fortunes. They traditionally wear Hanboks, the Korean clothes of old, which are very beautiful and raise the chest of any patriotic Korean. The holiday is one of the largest in Korea aside from the Lunar New Year which happens after the regular New Year.

Now, my Chuseok began just like any other week because, guess what, my school (so few schools actually did this) wanted to have school on Monday. Thank goodness they didn’t want to have school on Friday, which would have been entirely applicable, seeing as Chuseok break lasted technically from Tuesday to Thursday. If they did, well then thank Got for sick days.

On my travels I got to see my fair share of Engrish, which makes me so, so happy. I love seeing it whenever I’m aut.

Okay, I’m done, I promise. Where do I start? I guess the beginning is a good O.o.

I began my adventure/trip/escapade/excursion (Oh English, how many words you have to denote the same thing) on Tuesday after I regrettably discovered that Tabor Grey, the secret love of my life, wouldn’t be down for her cousins birthday. I know, I should have been more upset on behalf of their cousins, but I’m selfish, as evident in the thing I did next. I left promptly afterward for Cheonan. I forewarned Caitlin, of course apologizing for missing their birthday which would proceed the following day. I came to Korea to teach and explore! So, I went to go explore after exhausting the whole teaching thing as much as I could.

The bus ride was fantastic...ehhh…It was alright for a bus full of sleeping Koreans. It’s funny how whenever you see a Korean in the real world on a bus, they’re usually sleeping. I found out earlier it’s because they over work themselves and hardly allow for any z’s, hence the whole conking out on transportation mediums. Anyway, a good three or so hours later I was in Cheonan meeting my good Kiwi friends, Jose and Ben to go to Jose’s apartment to see Leanne and Jenny (all of which I adore immensely, primarily for their brilliant accents). We had fun Norebanging it up in a really cool place called Princess or something like that (yes, the inside resembled a little girls dreamscape) and then we all hit the hay (and by hay I mean Jose’s really uncomfortable floor with nothing but a very thin blanket to separate).

The next day, the girls left and Jose and Ben and I were left to explore the wonders of Cheonan, which were very, very, very few. (The following pictures depict Cheonan City Hall, Ben ruining my shot of a really cool mirror thing at City Hall, and a pretty gazebo. There's apparently a renactment thing there of the horrible way the Japanese treated the Koreans. I really want to go back and see it.)

However, we got to go for a walk! I love walking! I can only assume they got it after my hearing numerous groans from them. I also got to meet Sara and Ashley, two very awesome girls who live in Cheonan with Jose, and Kevin who is very infamous in my circle of friends (I was glad to finally meet him and formulate my own feelings for the fellow. They’re not bad, don’t worry).

That night we enjoyed the company of friends and heaps (hehe, what a funny word) of soju and then crashed hard back on that familiar floor so we could get all rested for what lay in store the next day. The ZOOOOOO!

This place was sweeet. Apparently its 10th largest in the world (I wouldn’t know, it’s not like I’m a zoo connoisseur or anything). All I cared about was that it had wolves! I love those buggers! Along with camels, bears, flamingos, large cats, many insects, and a plethora of underwater life, the whole trip seemed a pretty big success, especially since I had Dakbokki for lunch!

Did I mention the zoo was in Seoul? Yeah, Cheonan has a convenient subway connecting it to Seoul. Jealous much? Indeed I am.

Through some random and unexplainable brain workings I decided it would be a good idea to head down to Ulsan. Trust me I have no idea why I went. Just go with it.

So, I went to the bus terminal, bought my ticket and sat around for an hour sipping yummy Americano coffee and getting told off by fuming baristas who don’t like their pictures taken and then once again I was on the rode!

(My coffee)

(Angry barista lady coming to tell me off. I wasn't even taking a picture of her! I was taking a picture of the fermenting boxes.)

A good three hours or so later I ran smack into Ulsan! The first thing I got to see (aside from the river) was this giant Ferris wheel! Little did I know that later in the weekend I would get to sit in one of those welcoming gondolas!

I met two very good friends from Jochiwon (Erin Stutesman and Shalini Sharma) and we were off on an hour and a half trek through Ulsan to Shalini’s place near the ocean. Trust me, it was worth it.

Then I got to meet all of these rad people from Ulsan, including Nicole, Tiffany, Yuri and Ben (again). We got to explore the wonders of Ulsan (which are motley and plentiful!) which included a lot of food, primarily delicious patbingsu.

Patbingsu is a scrumptious little (actually it’s usually big. Often times it is shared. Trust me you don’t want to eat it all alone. Korean’s will look at you like you’re so pathetic and lonely T_T) desert invented here in K-Town that incorporates the flavors of shaved ice (sometimes shaved frozen cream too! If it isn’t shaved, the cream is just added in) cream (refer to previous brackets), sweet red beans, fruit (sometimes), cereal (sometimes), ice cream (sometimes) and a whole lot of Korean love. It’s splendiferous.

Finally after much fun, I had my last mean with Shalini (Kimbap, basically Korean Sushi…except no raw fish) and then I was off to Seoul. Later I received a phone call reminding me about dinner with my mentor teacher which I (of course) forgot. I’ve been so forgetful lately. Let’s hope it’s merely a phase…hope :/. She hand made me Dalkgalbi. I was so upset when I got to Seoul around 4:30 (I had to be in Chuncheon by 6:00ish to eat) and then got lost for literally, three agonizing hours. The subways system was a bitch, maneuvering between crowds of lazy Koreans was a bitch, find the bus terminal was a bitch and the bus actually getting out of the terminal onto the road was a bitch. All in all, I think we can deduce that Seoul is a bitch. I will never connect there ever again.

Finally, I got home at 9:00, shagged, fagged and ready to hit my bed that had been calling me all week long, feeling a little hallow. Not to get too deep here, (I can probably blame it on being very exhausted and having spent about \300,000 (that translates to about $300)) but I was starting to second guess my feelings for staying here any longer than six months and was really looking forward to going home.

Then I saw my friends here in Chuncheon, Carlie, Caitlin, Paul and Pat, and I felt stacks (ß Kiwi word!) better.

Aside from the odd turn in directions for my emotions, the week was pretty monumentally fantastic. I traveled A LOT and I was glad that I did. Not to mention as soon as I got home I saw a guy get racked in the nads for “science” on some silly Korean television program. Nothing like a little comic violence to be the cherry on top of my ice cream (or patbingsu) bowl of a vacation.

P.S. Why do I have NO pictures of Leanne and Jenny!? What was I doing with my camera!!? >.<

Five culture shocks

Yes, I'm merely repeating a trend of a few of my blog friends in the past. However, I believe it is an entertaining, perhaps almost necessary post that I'm required to show to the rest of the civilized world.

Five things about Korea that has appalled/interested/surprised me in the past two months since I've been here. I feel like there may turn out to be more than five, but I don't want to copy anyone so I'll think intently about the subject before putting a new series up.

1. I'm going to start with the most revolting. Now, it may be because I grew up in a country where we kill insects, not consume them, but I'm pretty sure that 번데기 has got to be one of the most stomach churning consumable I’ve ever heard of. 번데기 translates to Pupa, in English. Yes, you have the correct image in your head. If not, here’s one to help.

I’m just being honest, but I think I’d rather eat a multitude of other dishes on the planet than this, not to mention, it smells like dirt and feel s like dirt when you bite into it. Yes, indeed I have eaten it. It reminds me of a dirt bean. Yum! There are some things that I just wonder, “why would you ever put that in your mouth? “

2. Commercials. I know at home, they suck. I hate it when you’re in the midst of an emotionally epic film and a commercial pops up and you groan. Luckily at home, they’re just long enough to get up, go pee, maybe grab a drink really fast and run back to the T.V. to continue. Not in Korea. Here, instead we watch a film for a good 30-45 minutes. Yeah, that rules. However, the commercials are so long that I have found myself multiple times having enough time to pee, grab a drink, drink it, make dinner, eat it, sit around aimlessly and then give up and call my friends to see what bar we can go to (perhaps this is an overstatement). Literally, the commercials last so long I get tired of the movie and almost lose entire interest in the film itself. That and the same commercials are pretty much on constant repeat. Oh Korea. There’s only so many times I can watch yellow clad Korean singers dancing to a loan shark commercial before I feel like punching the television screen.

3. Koreans I have found are, for the majority, a very kind and welcoming group of humans. Yes, I have seen the odd fight among four businessmen in Seoul who were just way to fucking drunk and smashed shot glasses over one another’s head, resulting in much blood and ruined suits (which is a pity, seeing as Korean suits are usually silvery and shiny and downright amazing!). However, they are understanding when you can’t speak Korean, and will play the mime game with you any old time if you have to, say, find the toilet or need the directions to the nearest subway/train/bus station. In fact, almost to the point where they feel comfortable to whip out all of the English they have EVER learned in an attempt to communicate, despite the fact that, no, it doesn’t make any sense. Usually, you’ll just find yourself nodding, smiling, saying 감사합니다 (thank you) and trying to get free of their un-bashful groping of your ligaments. This happens very frequently, usually among those of the inebriated Korean race.

4. In America, I always hated trash. I think trash was my least favorite chore that I was given as a child. Korea in comparison is a nightmare to my American upbringing. While at home, we had trash taken on a scheduled day. Food trash was merely disposed of in the trash can and placed in a giant green bin that, yes eventually smelled bad and sometimes got infested with flies, but it was all manageable. In Korea you just put your trash on the side of the road and wait for someone come get it. Seriously. You leave it in a fucking bag and someone in the middle of the night may or may not throw it out. But there's not real way to tell precisely when they will be there. I usually wait till the pile on the corner of my block is about to my head level. Then I know the trash man must be coming soon. And trust me, walking past that every morning to get to my bus to school smells fantastic! As well, I feel at constant battle with fruit flies. At first moving into my apartment, I kept my food trash in my kitchen. In my feeble attempts to save money and not be a waste of plastic, I didn’t (and still don’t) take out my food waste bag (btw, there are different bags for different wastes here. Forewarning) until it was brimming full of partially composted, moldy food. As such, such cute little creatures like maggots take the chance to grow and flourish into cute little flies that harass my entire apartment. I don’t like killing things, bugs included. However, flies/mosquitoes/cockroaches serve no purpose in my life/on the planet so I feel no remorse in destroying them. The war has lasted the entire time I’ve been here even though I’ve long since placed my food trash outside on my balcony to reduce the number of fucker flies zooming around my head. I promise my apartment is not that disgusting. I think I’m winning the fight. Their numbers seem to be diminishing.

5. This last one is a pleasant surprise, yet a surprise none-the-less. To be honest, I’ve never felt I’m a totally unattractive person. Yeah, everyone has felt those moments of non-satisfaction in themselves and have hated the way they look or the way their shaped or what not. Yes, I’m included in this bunch. Living in Korea however, has kind of inflated my ego insurmountably. So much so, that I think I could wear sweats and a baggy tee, go a few days without shaving and wear my giant clunky glasses and still get Koreans telling me that I’m “handsome boy”. In fact, the other day (maybe a week and a half ago) a Korean girl got off at the bus stop where I was waiting for my bus to come home and asked if she could have my picture with her. When she took the picture, she looked at it, squealed and then for the next block and half kept turning to me and saying “bye handsome boy!” A vast majority of the school and school staff has called me attractive and offered me gifts solely for this fact, and I’ve even had Korean men (drunk mind you, but never-the-less) get up from their tables and shake my hand and introduce themselves to me, all the while saying, “you are handsome!”. My physical education teacher at my school (a male) even said to me, “You are more beautiful than woman!” It wasn’t a joke. He was legitimately attempting to compliment me.

That’s it so far. I’ll try to put more up as I see them. :P Keep watching for updates!

Yangyang and Provincial Orientation

Our provinical orientation was heaven. Not a lot of people had it good, but we were treated like royalty. It all began with our closing ceremony and lunch at Jochiwon. The lunch there was exquisite! We all said our rushed goodbye's to the friends we had made. Personally, I was very sad to be leaving them. I had made some very strong bonds with my fellow TaLK scholars and now I was forced to leave them!? For the most part, I think I handeled it well.

Then we piled all of our suitcases into the buses and headed off. Of course, my bus was late because we had tried to pack everyone's suitcase into the bottom of the bus. Somehow, the driver thought that would have worked. Nope. Instead, it looked something like this.

Of course it was the men who had to pack that tetris game of a wall. :P Honestly, it wasn't too bad. Working together helped us all have something in common. Yes, we did all know each other from Jochiwon orientation, but a majority of us still didn't really know each other well. It was like restarting orientation all over again.



The view from the bus was awesome. We knew it as soon as we reached Gangwon-do. As soon as I saw the country side I let out all of my, "Fuck yeah"'s for my excitement at my own genious for picking Gangwon-do as my province. Yeah, it's close to North Korea, but it's cooler weather and effing beautiful landscape. There's mountains, the ocean, forests and rivers. This place rules!

As soon as we arrived we had dinner. That too, was extravagant. There was so much fresh sushimi and nagmyun and bulgogi! It was fantastic. Regrettibly, I didn't bring my camera to dinner. :/

Then we got to see the rooms! :D





Compared to Jochiwon, our rooms were gigantic! That, and my roomie was awesome! He was the best roommate I've ever had...not that I've had a plethora of them. He was the first roommate I ever had good talks with. Thumbs up Jonathan Lee.

That night we were supposed to play soccer. :/ Luckily, they switched our activity last minute to going to the stream/river. Now that was a fantastic idea!




It was very pretty there! There was even a natural spring near that had naturally carbonated water! It tasted like rust :P, but you got over it. It was really healthy soooo :P.

We also got the chance to make rice cake in the traditional manner. Let me tell you, if you ever have any pent up anger while you're here in Korea about the fact that everyone around you speaks another language and that they put poopie toilet paper in trash cans and stink up the bathroom and that everyone eats squid like no one's business, then you need to try this out. You litterally take Thor's fuckin' hammer and beat the shit out of some rice. I felt so manly!

Then afterwards we got to roll up the rice cake and eat it! It was delicious, especially the ones with red bean paste in the middle. Mmmm :).


Jonathan (my roomie!) holding some rice cake. What does that look like to you?

Red bean pastein the middle. So efftastic good!

We also went to a Buddhist temple. I went once already. The first time sucked so much penis. But the second time, it was ballin' (thanks Pat for allowing me the chance to pick up Canadian slang :P)! It was right next to the water. This Buddha statue used to be the biggest in Asia, but then someone else decided to say "eff you" and build a bigger one. :P

Of course, I left out the other rather boring things we did. We made pottery at a pottery museum, we went to a dam museum and GILI (pointless). If you want to know about it, look it up yourself :D.

Then we had our closing banquet with our co-scholars and tons and tons of soju. In Korean culture, if you want to be good friends with someone, you offer them a shot of soju in your own shot glass. I had 16 or so shots of soju that night. So plastered O.o. I'll have to be more carful at Hweyshik (company dinner were there is comparibly as much soju as there is food...and there's lots of food).

And now I'm in Chuncheon, trying to get used to the town and transit system. I missed by bus (AGAIN!) today. I found out later that I was standing at the bus stop but I actually had to flag the dude down. I had no idea. Hopefully tomorrow I will actually be able to take it and not be a re-re about it. Fuckin' Korean bus system! :D

I'm kidding. I think I'll enjoy my time here.

Edit: Oh man! I almost forgot to share this. This was the poster for the Order of Ceremony for provincial orientation. Oh Korea. :P

Apartment

My time in Korea has been short. Despite that, I have felt in love with this country, and have felt twinging pangs of distaste for it. I've both enjoyed learning Korean culture, and found it revolting. I've eaten delicious foods, and wondered why anyone would think of eating that!

For the majority, I believe it has thus far been a positive experience. I miss my friends I made back in Jochiwon and Yangyang orientations, but I'm glad I'm slowly but surely getting to know my way around Chuncheon.

I've been having trouble with my camera, hence the lack of pictures, but I'd like to begin integrating images into my blog in an effort to make it more interesting.

Let's begin with my phone.

Cute right. Despite it's obvious brickishness, it works well enough for what I need. The charm on it is my bus pass for Chuncheon bus transit system. Trust me, I've had my bad experiences with transit systems, but never quite so bad till I reached Chuncheon.

My mentor teacher failed to tell me that there are two number 67 buses, one that goes in one direction, the other, in the opposite direction. Regrettably I got on the wrong bus and rode it until the driver told me to get off in broke English. There I was, in a foreign city, unable to speak any words aside from kamsahapnida (thank you ) and ahneyonghaseyoh (hello), giant books in toe, walking the streets of Chuncheon.

Frustrated, I climbed in a cab and said Namchuncheon Yok, which is the nearest landmark to my apartment, a train station. The previous day I had missed the bus and tried to take a taxi to my school. Unfortunately, the taxi driver had no idea what I was saying in my poor pronunciation of Korean, and so tried to take me into the heart of the city. Instead I changed to Home Plus and walked about 3 or 4 miles to my school. Shit.

Thankfully it's all figured out now.

But now I'm in my apartment and it's pretty rad.

I hope everything turns out well while I'm here. I'll put another blog about my Yangyang orientation. My timelines suck because it's easier to talk about what happened recently :P. That and I'm limited to five pictures per blog, so I can't put too many more up.

I'll keep you posted!

English Camp

My time at English camp astounded even I. I went into it with as positive of a mind set as I could. Even still, it wasn’t as bright as I was attempting to trick myself into. It didn’t work in my favor that I had the most unresponsive child there (that’s purely an exaggeration).

Alex. That was the English name dubbed to him by yours truly. I presented him a list of generic names like John, James, Adam etc. When I said Alex he jumped and nodded since he refused to speak English to me despite the fact that he spoke English very well. Later I was told that there is a famous Korean singer who goes by the English name as Alex. The truth behind the name!

Surprisingly, young children are so much like puppies that sometimes I almost picture a leash on that tiny little neck. :P I wish I had had one for Alex; all those times he ran off and taunted me for not keeping up got under my skin. I understand all the numerous times I was told not to take it personally, but it’s harder than you think to just brush it aside. In fact, I had this rather annoying scholar actually complain to me about his perfectly receptive, cute Korean kid because she liked to hang out with her friends and didn’t pay him enough “attention”. I had no remorse for anyone except Shalini, who had a kid that actually swore excessively in Korean and thew fit after fit.

Our days were meticulously planned by Group four coordinator, Tee. Luckily, I was part of group four. Previously we had divided into teams. I belonged to team 3, my team leader: Stephen Christopher Low, a very interesting Brit/Kiwi with a shock of red hair. The first days consisted of game that, to be honest, none of the kids in my team hardly participated in. In fact, my rambunctious cheek-squeezer was off in the corner playing with a mock, orange football (soccer ball). From that day on, I would learn that if I ever needed to find Alex, that I could just look for a brightly colored football and find him not far in toe.

The next day we had textbook rotation. We were incorrectly informed that we had to make a lesson plan for our child for two hours straight. We were allowed to be in groups of two, so me and my friends Leanne, teamed up to teach our living, breathing Korean child. I need to preface that Leanne is fucking awesome! She helped me so much to plan for our lesson and was such a great break from working with my kid. She’s from New Zealand. For some reason the Kiwi’s grouped together a lot, so Leanne sort of helped me make headway into the Kiwi scene. There are a shit ton of Kiwi’s here!

Anway, so Leanne and I planned this rad lesson involving colors that we had to scrap when they told us that it was a rotation style lesson. I would get to work with 4 kids, including mine, through a rotation about every 10 minutes. Working with my kid was...well, honestly, it left nothing to be desired. He sat there, staring at me, no matter how hard I tried to get him to repeat me and learn with me. After a long and grueling 10 minutes, I was gifted with three of the sweetest, most responsive kids! The last, Justin, even gave me a sticker with Korean written all over it. The sticker said, “Thank you teacher! My English isn’t very good, but I feel that I’ve gotten better being taught by you. Thank you.” It was so fucking cute I almost puked.

The rest of the classes were pretty lame. We had traditional Korean music, cultural experience where we made Aboriginal dot art from Australia/New Zealand (even though they are two separate countries), a football jersey from UK, or a board game from America (I know, I had the same reaction. What the fuhhh!? Is America land of board games or something?), English through theatre (I was the director. I was told I treated the kids like dogs. :D), and English through music.

We were also required to eat our meals with our kids. Cute, except that I would always have to ditch my meal to take my kid back to the dorm because I didn’t know how to get across that he needed to wait for me to finish.

Our rooms consisted to 10 scholars per room, two showers and one toilet. Not only that, but we slept on palates on the floor, not on beds. I thought this would be bad, but honestly I slept so well on it that I can’t complain.

After three days of constant silence from Alex, watching everyone enjoy their adorable Korean pets/kids and being exhausted from 12 hours a day of children and classes, I think a majority of us were pretty stoked for it to be over. We had a talent show near the end, where the groups separated into two divisions and got a song together to perform. Highlights were definitely Thriller and Jump on it. It was so rad. We actually were told that our talent show was the best that a lot of the supervisors had ever scene. It was great! Then we had our closing ceremony, in which Alex was playing a game on my phone because he was bored. A lot of the scholars and their respective children were teary eyed.

Despite my bad experience at English camp, I did enjoy myself quite a lot. I got to be around really great people and we turned the negatives to positives as much as we could. That, and we ate so much ice cream thanks to a convenience store being right next to our dormitories. And even though I had a bad child and had to sleep on the floor and share a shower and work and work and work, I really enjoyed it. I feel so much more prepared for my class room now. It is my first time teaching, so I know that I still have a lot to learn, but I know one thing. My classroom is so going to have a disciplinary system. 100%

1st 1/2 of orientation: Korea so far

Lecture, lecture, lecture, lunch, lecture, lecture, lecture, dinner, lecture: as such the way some of my days have gone in this whirlwind of an adventure. We've only just begun, and yet I can tell it's going to be quite the winding road, full of pit falls, good times, and lots of 소주.

So far it's been a blast despite how drained I am after lecture after lecture. You just have to grin and bear it for the most part. The dorm rooms are lush but cramped, especially with mine and my roommates giant suitcases littering the space. O.o...so intense.

What's gone down so far? Well, aside from lectures and food, I've met some of the coolest, motley array of people I think I'll ever have the pleasure of meeting again. There are soooo many people worth mentioning, but I'll refrain to keep the creep level of this blog to a minimum. O.o

So, in lectures we've learned how to handle rambunctious kids, teach them through music, drama and magic, learned the need-to-know's for creating lesson plans and the norms of Korean culture. Though usually riveting, they got a little redundant to the point I was beginning to nod off. But do not fret my friends, I persevered.

I've been exploring 조치원 (Jochiwon) as much as I can in my free time with friends. We've gone to 노래방 (Karaoke) and to bars and just walked...a lot. Taxi's are remarkably easier to use than you'd think. As long as you speak slowly, they usually get it. Of course, I like to look up the Korean word for wherever I want to go before doing it. It's safer.

This past weekend I experienced the culturally diverse city of 서울 (Seoul). I say city, but I really only stayed near 합정역(Hapjeong) station where our hostel was. We explored a little bit, but I really cant remember the names of the other stations/streets we went to. But we didn't go too far lest we became directionally challenged.

My experience in 서울 was intense. While me and my friends were having dinner we got front row seats to a fight between four Korean business men who were out having a good time. One pushed the other, another broke a shot glass on his friends head and cut his hand, then some three-on-one action of kicking and punching another guy in a corner. Good times. What was best was when they would hug and be best friends in between these surges of excessive anger and violence. The entire time, blood is staining their white shirts and pristine ties and their scuffing their well shined shoes. I for one was devastated that one of the guys was ruining a fine pair of silver dress pants. Sad, sad day. :D

Aside from that horror-show, the city wasn't bad. Most people were very warm and welcoming to English speaking foreigners. Even if the Korean didn't speak hardly ANY English, as long as you said hello and thank you in Korean, they were game for the charades that ensued when asking for directions, where the bathroom was and what you wanted to order for lunch. I literally pantomimed peeing into a urinal to get some guy to understand what I meant. It works, so don't judge.

I really intend to learn Korean while I'm here. Not that charades aren't fun, it's just a little degrading and a little...umm...ridiculous...yeah, that's the word I want.

The hostel wasn't too bad. Rock hard beds, two bathrooms, 20 + people. What's not to love? Honestly, the place was really safe and I really enjoyed it. Here is a link to the website of the Hostel. It's really safe and the guys are really accommodating. Trust me, you'll like it if you go.

I went to a few clubs, learned a Korean dance move or two (and taught some Koreans a little bit of what Western dancing has to offer), ate a bunch and soon was on the train back home. Honestly, 조치원was a relief. It's so much easier to navigate with significantly fewer people.

So, here we are. I've packed and I'm all ready for English camp where I'll be working with a Korean student for 12 hours a day for 4 days. A lot of people I've talked to are being pretty negative about it, but I'm trying my best to stay positive. I just hope I get a responsive, sweet and adorable kids and not some rowdy little shit who wont at least try to communicate with me. Either way, I'll learn what I'm supposed to do.

It looks like, up to this point, I really enjoy Korea. I'm not sure how long that feeling will last. For now, I'll take it and run with it.

Good Morning Korea!

(Edit: Btw, I thought it may be pertinent to tell anyone that I've found my man-bag since my last blog! Phew!)

All of this build up and now it’s finally that time. I’m sitting here in my dorm in the University of Korea, looking out over the cityscape of the town I’m in (I won’t even try to butcher it’s name. I’m about an hour and forty-five minutes from Incheon airport, let’s just say) and it all seems pretty surreal. I’m actually in Korea.

To be honest it really isn’t that much different from the U.S. For some unexplainable reason I thought that it would be significantly different. My assumptions were proven incorrect. Honestly the largest difference is the fact that everything has Hangul written all over it.

...hmm...so I guess I’ll tell you about some things I’ve had to learn were a bit altered from their American counterparts. Namely, the dual elevators that only go to even numbers on the left, and odd numbers on the right. At the ground level I made the sour mistake of hoping aboard the odd numbered elevator. Regrettably my room is on the eighth floor so I had to take a trip back down, still carrying these monster bags in toe, and then through the other elevator and then back up. I didn’t realize I had to switch elevators till I was up on the seventh floor of the odd numbered elevator. Bother.

Then of course the shower that isn’t really a shower. In fact, the bathroom really isn’t a bathroom, it’s a shower room. The shower head isn’t blocked off or in a bathtub or anything. It’s just on the wall in the middle of the room. That’s fine by my standards, I don’t mind getting everything wet...except for my dry clothes that I carry in to change into once I’m done. I almost got them entirely soaked when I placed them in the far corner of the room and didn’t realize the water was slowly creeping up to it. Note to self: don’t leave anything on the floor of the bathroom, anywhere, while showering. It will get wet.

So I’ve experienced a minor amount of culture shock. Silly thing is I sort of new about these things already and am still interested at the fact that I’m still a bit shocked by it...that and I have to take my shoes off every time I enter my dorm. Not a biggie, but I keep forgetting! Sigh.

The flight itself ruled though. There were really nice Korean ladies that brought us awesome food. That was pretty much the best part of the flight, oh and the fact that the in flight media player ruled! I saw so many sweet movies that I’ve been wanting to see. They even had Imogen Heaps new album on it. Score. And they had these really awesome roll things with sweet meat in the middle. I was scrumptious.

Now all I need to do is get my time schedule set. Annoyingly so, my circadian clock is forcibly hardwired to Central Standard Time. I was wide away at 4:00am this morning (2:00pm in the U.S) and had the most horrible time trying to go back to bed...most likely from the air conditioner that isn’t working for some reason, being off and burning me to a lovely sweat all night long.

My roomie seems nice enough too. David from Chicago, Korean-American, what’s not to like? :) He says he can speak enough Korea to get by, but I don’t think he realizes that if he spends any time with me, I’ll be asking him to translate a lot. I hope he’s better than he says he is :P. First things first though, I’m going to see if he can read the Hangul on the thermostat. I’m burning up!

Alright, now I guess I should get in the shower and great ready for breakfast. Hamburgers and french-fries is what I’m told the people who already arrived have been having for breakfast. Man, Koreans know Americans so well.